title: Relationships among the O-antigen gene clusters of Salmonella enterica groups B, D1, D2, and D3.
abstract: The O antigen is an important cell wall antigen of gram-negative bacteria, and the genes responsible for its biosynthesis are located in a gene cluster. We have cloned and sequenced the DNA segment unique to the O-antigen gene cluster of Salmonella enterica group D3. This segment includes a novel O-antigen polymerase gene (wzyD3). The polymerase gives alpha(1-->6) linkages but has no detectable sequence similarity to that of group D2, which confers the same linkage. We find the remnant of a D3-like wzy gene in the O-antigen gene clusters of groups D1 and B and suggest that this is the original wzy gene of these O-antigen gene clusters.
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, The University of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Curd
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: P R
authors.initials: PR
authors.lastname: Reeves
mesh_terms: D000918:Antibody Specificity; D001483:Base Sequence; D002240:Carbohydrate Sequence; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D005798:Genes, Bacterial; D006602:Hexosyltransferases / Q000235:genetics*; D008364:Mannosyltransferases / Q000235:genetics; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D005810:Multigene Family; D019081:O Antigens / Q000096:biosynthesis* / Q000145:classification / Q000276:immunology; D019779:Salmonella enterica / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics* / Q000276:immunology; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D012689:Sequence Homology, Nucleic Acid
chemical_list: D019081:O Antigens; D006602:Hexosyltransferases; D008364:Mannosyltransferases; C068252:O-antigen polymerase, Salmonella